crafting memories: Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts winners

Thank you so much for all the thoughtful comments left on last Tuesday's giveaway post. It has been fun to read about all of your crafting memories!

Some common themes: crafting with sisters/mothers/grandmothers/friends is always special. My sister reminded me of the time my mom sat down with us and taught us how to weave baskets (she makes the most amazing baskets). My mom can make anything - I always loved making projects with her growing up (and she was the one to get me hooked on Martha Stewart). We still end up crafting together during visits.

I usually find that I am far less productive while crafting with friends than alone, but it is always a good time. Years ago in New York, my friends and I had an impromptu sock-animal sewing party:

I loved hearing all of your stories! They reminded me of good times I've had crafting with loved ones, successful projects, and funny failures. It was nearly impossible to pick favorites, but here are the five comments I chose as the giveaway winners:

Danielle said...

One of my favorite memories was when my grandmother was teaching my cousin Eric and I to embroider (we were both around 8 or 9 yrs old). I was working on a pillow case and he was making a pillow for his mom. I accidentally stitched my pillow case to her bed quilt! I ended up cutting the quilt to get my stitches out and tried to sew the quilt back. It looked terrible haha. Those stitches are still there today though, so I must have put them in pretty well!

Amy said:When I was a kid we were making come craft for our moms for mothers day. My friend Tanya (a tomboy) was doing an awful job at hers so she turned to me and said "Amy, make mine for me, or I'll beat you up! And make it blue." I would have done it for her anyway! Tish said:My favorite craft moment was learning to sew not from my mom, but from my younger brother who was in high school. He learned in Home economics. He stayed up until the wee hours of the morning teaching me the basics. Since then it has opened more windows in my craft world. So thank you to my brother Nick!

Aunt Nancy said:
My favorite crafting memory goes way back to when I was about7 years old. I made earrings for my mother in my school class out of big, dark red buttons. I glued little crystal clear beads in the center of the button and glued a screw-on back and I was ready to give the most amazing christmas present ever to my mom. I wrapped the earrings all by myself and couldn't wait till she unwrapped them Christmas morning. Well, needless to say, because the package was so tiny and not in a box, it got lost for awhile in the ton of wrapping paper all over the living room floor. I was devastated! But thanks to my mom, we finally found the treasure and true to my imagined joy...she loved them!. My mother was my inspiration for growing up wanting to make my home more beautiful by creating things myself. When my mother passed away and I was going through her jewelry box, I found the beaded earrings that I had made for her with love. She had kept them for all those years....a very tender memory for me of a mother's love and inspiration!

myemye_12 said:
I was still fairly new to sewing and my husband asked me to make him a ninja turtle costume. It was only a week before Halloween but I told him I could do it(I really wasn't sure I could!). He went to the fabric store with me to pick out a pattern and the perfect ninja turtle color fabric and we worked on it late together every night that week, even staying up until 3 the night before Halloween. Our daughter was just two months old, and boy were we exhausted but we had the best time together. He would trace the pattern and cut the fabric and I ran the sewing machine. Oh man when that costume was finally finished he was so excited. I have never given him anything (except our daughter) that he thought was that awesome. It was like he was six years old again. And he was so proud of it, he told everyone at the Halloween party that we made it. I'm pretty sure they could tell we made it with it's odd proportions(we blew up a toddler sized pattern) and crooked seams, but he was convinced it was THE BEST costume at the party. It is still hanging in our closet and I smile every time I look at it.

Congratulations to the winners! Please email me (homemadebyjill@gmail.com) with your shipping address so I can have the book mailed out to you.